Buttons
by AngelTrisha9
Summary: Patrick finds a jar of buttons in his wife sowing basket


"Damn," Patrick muttered under his breath. The bottom of his shirt had caught in the zipper of his trouser and a long thread was coming loose. A mother and two wives had taught him well and he knew better than to pull on the thread and an incident with a pair of kitchen scissors had made him well aware he could be better served going through his wife sewing basket. Still in his stocking feet, his tie undone around his neck, Patrick walked down the stairs and into the sitting room. He went to the sofa and pulled the basket from underneath. Opening it, he took a small jelly jar out and found the satchel Shelagh kept her scissors, pin cushion and small elements in. He quickly cut the thread and started putting things back to rights.

A mother and two wives had thought him very well that he should always leave the things that he had no right touching exactly how he had found them. He put the satchel back into the basket, took the jelly jar and made to put it back, but he hit it against another one. Puzzled, Patrick looked at the content and was surprised to see both jars contained buttons. One was miscellaneous buttons all the colors of the rainbow and the other was filled with white buttons only. They all looked the same, solid white with rounded edges. They were all the same size as the ones on his clinical coat, except he knew his were entirely flat. He couldn't recall losing this many buttons.

Actually, he was very sure he had never lost this many buttons. He had gone through eight coats in the last six months and Shelagh was always tugging on them to make sure they were solidly attached to his coat. She even checked all his new clinical coats and redid all the ones she felt were loose. He had caught her doing it once, his wife had blushed prettily and simply said she didn't want him to look unkempt. It had been in the early weeks of their marriage and it had made him feel loved and cared for in a way he hadn't expected. So he wondered where these buttons came from.

"Patrick, are you ready?" Shelagh asked, walking in the sitting room, fastening her watch. She looked up at her husband and the jelly jar he was holding. The pretty blush came back, but the intensity of it made him frown.

"Did you need something dear?" She asked breezily.

He shook the jelly jar at her. "Do I really lose this many?"

She took the jar from him and slid it back in the basket. Patrick looked at his wife put her sewing basket away, and she turned back to him, the blush intensifying. Blue eyes meet his briefly and he saw a shyness he hadn't seen in his wife since early in their marriage. She took the two ends of his tie and started doing the knot. She was concentrating hard and not because she needed to. "Darling?"

"You didn't lose them, Patrick. I replaced them," she seemed embarrassed by the confession and Patrick was baffled.

"Why?"

She looked up at him before looking back at the knot she was finishing. "I replace them with the first buttons I've ever sewn on your coat."

"Sorry?" His wife had lost him completely. She tightened his tie and moved to walk away, but Patrick put his hand on her hips to keep her in place. "Shelagh?"

"Before I left the order, before I was even certain, there were buttons missing on your clinical coat. I sew new ones on for you," her voice was barely above a whisper and Patrick felt his heart melt.

"I hadn't known it was you," he felt guilty now, so many months after the fact.

"I didn't want you to know it was me. You couldn't know it was me. When I was in the sanatorium…" They rarely spoke of those days, the pain of the separation the anguish of not knowing, it was a wound too deep to look at some times.

"When you were in the sanatorium?" Patrick prompted her gently, squeezing her hips tenderly.

"The only thing that made me feel less lonely was knowing you had pieces of me with you," Shelagh looked up at Patrick and he saw the blue had gone misty.

Words failed him and he leaned down, pressing his lips against his wife once, twice, three times before she sighed and leaned into him, the kissing blooming with all he could not say. They pulled apart breathlessly, and Patrick asked: "And now that I have all of you?"

"Now I change them because I can, because I am certain and because I want you to know," Shelagh looked in his eyes, the earlier shyness completely gone as she tugged on his tie, bringing his lips flush with hers in a kiss that didn't need coaxing. Patrick squeezed her hips and brought her closer to him, but he didn't feel it was enough. The kiss stole his breath and his wife stole his heart all over again.

The kiss ended reluctantly and Patrick smiled at his wife. "Now that I know, I'll never be able to button it without thinking of you."

The smile his wife graced him with was knowing and impish.

"Minx!"


End file.
